Nov

9

The Verdict? A Very Successful Civil Trial Conference

Posted by: Daniel D. Blinka | November 9, 2009 | Leave a Comment

One of this Law School’s most noteworthy legacies is its production of many of the region’s most outstanding trial lawyers.  The legacy was fully evident on Friday, November 6, 2009 at the Civil Trial Evidence and Litigation Conference.  The sold-out event served as a “last call for Sensenbrenner Hall” of sorts while featuring a panel [...]

Oct

13

Reinert on the Actual Success of Bivens Claims and Its Implications for the Constitutional Rights of Federal Employees

Posted by: Paul M. Secunda | October 13, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Alex Reinert (Cardozo) has posted on SSRN his forthcoming article in the Stanford Law Review: Measuring the Success of Bivens Litigation and its Consequences for the Individual Liability Model.
Here’s the abstract:
In Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Federal Bureau of Narcotics, 403 U.S. 388 (1971), the Supreme Court held that the Federal Constitution [...]

Oct

10

ACS Presentation on 2008-09 Supreme Court Opinions

Posted by: Joshua Pollack | October 10, 2009 | Leave a Comment

With the beginning of the 2009-2010 term of the Supreme Court, the Marquette Chapter of American Constitution Society for Law and Public Policy (ACS) spent a lunch-hour discussing some of the more interesting cases of the past 2008-2009 term. Leading the lunch discussion were Marquette professors Blinka, McChrystal, and Secunda.
Professor Blinka started the lunch discussion [...]

Aug

27

Ashcroft v. Iqbal and the Pleading Standard

Posted by: Jay Rabideaux | August 27, 2009 | 3 Comments

Law professors teaching Civil Procedure this fall may have reason to revise their lecture notes covering the pleading standard in federal courts for the first time in a long time.  This pleading standard, as articulated in the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) Rule 8(a), has presented a very low hurdle for plaintiffs since the [...]

May

17

Eastern District of Wisconsin Bar Association Presents Awards to Michael O’Hear and Tom Shriner

Posted by: Jessica E. Slavin | May 17, 2009 | Leave a Comment

 Warm congratulations to our colleague, Professor Michael M. O’Hear, who recently received the Judge Robert W. Warren Public Service Award, at a ceremony during the Eastern District of Wisconsin Bar Association’s annual meeting. It was a pleasure for a number of us to attend and see Michael receive well-deserved recognition for his service. As Nathan [...]

Mar

30

Seeking a Practical Age Discrimination Standard

Posted by: Paul M. Secunda | March 30, 2009 | Leave a Comment

In Gross v. FBL Financial Services, Inc., being argued Tuesday, March 31, the Supreme Court will address how to analyze mixed-motive claims under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA). Nothing less than meaningful access for employment discrimination plaintiffs to relief under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1991 (CRA of 1991) is [...]

Jan

9

A Reminder: You Can’t Subpoena Non-Party ISPs for Emails in Civil Suits

Posted by: Bruce E. Boyden | January 9, 2009 | 2 Comments

I ordinarily wouldn’t blog about an unpublished short opinion from a magistrate judge in the Northern District of Mississippi (even though great things do come from there), but I view this as the leading edge of a wave of such opinions. In J.T. Shannon Lumber Co. v. Gilco Lumber, Inc., 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 104966 [...]

Nov

17

“And He Causeth All, Both Small and Great, Rich and Poor, Free and Bond, to Receive a Mark”

Posted by: Richard M. Esenberg | November 17, 2008 | Leave a Comment

So says Revelation 13:16. There are many interpretations of the wild events recounted in the Revelation to John. I am most familiar — and comfortable — with the view of the book as an allegory about persecution and redemption, but some folks think that it describes, in some more or less literal way, events that [...]

Nov

5

Should Non-Precedential Opinions Be “Precedential But Overrulable” Opinions?

Posted by: Jessica E. Slavin | November 5, 2008 | Leave a Comment

A post at Legal Theory Blog alerted me to Amy E. Sloan’s new article, If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Join ‘Em:  A Pragmatic Approach to Nonprecedential Opinions in the Federal Appellate Courts, 86 Neb. L. Rev. 895 (2008), available on SSRN.  Amy Sloan is an Associate Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Legal Skills program [...]

Nov

3

The Scrabulous Lawsuit: Heading Toward Default?

Posted by: Bruce E. Boyden | November 3, 2008 | Leave a Comment

I’ve posted extensively recently on Hasbro v. RJ Softwares, the Scrabulous lawsuit, including a four-part series on PrawfsBlawg and two posts here on the similar litigation in India. See my last post for links to all of those materials, and see this article for background if you’re just tuning in.
In the PrawfsBlawg series, I noted [...]

Oct

9

Priorities for the Next President: Securities Regulation

Posted by: Edward A. Fallone | October 9, 2008 | 1 Comment

The current crisis our nation faces on Wall Street and in the broader economy will be the primary focus of the next President. The crisis is complex, with many facets, and any solution will be equally complex. Issues such as the effectiveness of regulatory oversight versus deregulation, the transparency of specific types of [...]

Sep

22

Wall Street Collapse = ERISA Stock Drop Litigation

Posted by: Paul M. Secunda | September 22, 2008 | 1 Comment

Not a surprising development at all. From BNA Daily Labor Report (subscription required):
As several heavy hitters in the financial world have come under pressure or have gone bankrupt in the past couple of months because of the subprime mortgage and lending crisis that has battered investment firms and banks, the employer “stock drop” [...]